Grand Rapids Press File PhotoGrand Rapids Choir of Men and Boys return to the Cathedral of St. Andrew for their annual performance of "A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols” on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 14-15, 2012 in Grand Rapids, and Sunday Dec. 16 in Muskegon.

GRAND RAPIDS – The Great War ended in November 1918, and the war-weary people of Europe were ready to celebrate peace on earth once more.

At King’s College at Cambridge University, a former Army chaplain organized “A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols” to be held on Christmas Eve.

The Grand Rapids Choir of Men and Boys, now in its 23rd season, revives that long-lasting tradition, inspired by the original Christmas tale of a poor carpenter's wife who gave birth to a child in a stable and laid her baby in a manger.

The order of service features nine stories, from the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament, through the opening of the Gospel of St. John in the New Testament. The nine lessons the story of creation and the prophecies predicting the birth of a Messiah through the birth of Jesus and the mystery of the incarnation.

Each reading is followed by anthems for choir as well as carols for the congregation to sing that amplify the lessons.

Some of the music is traditional, such as the opening hymn, “Once in Royal David’s City.”

Thanks to annual Christmas Eve broadcasts on BBC Radio beginning in the 1920s, the format of lessons and carols plus additional hymns and anthems has become a liturgical holiday tradition in the English-speaking world.

The Grand Rapids Choir of Men and Boys sings in the traditional Anglican cathedral tradition with boys singing the treble, or soprano, parts, and adult men singing the other three vocal parts.

Bosscher, a Grand Rapids native who spent four years as a professional singer with the Wells Cathedral Choir in Somerset, England, will lead the program of traditional English carols such as “The Truth From Above” and contemporary carols including “Gallery Carol” by Kenneth Hesketh.

The choir of 22 senior boys and 27 men, accompanied by organist Ken Bos, will sing traditional anthems including Charles Wood’s “O Thou, the Central Orb” and contemporary works such as John Rutter’s “Star Carol.”

The congregation gets to sing popular carols such as “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

The service often is copied by choirs and community groups, but the Grand Rapids Choir of Men and Boys recreates it as it first was heard in the chapel of King's College.